Work Ethics vs. Laziness

How many times have I wondered why my students think working is beneath them? How do I teach a good work ethic? How can I show my students that they should take pride in having a job and doing it well? My parents told me many times that it was important to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. If I didn’t work, I didn’t get paid and I couldn’t do anything in life that I wanted to do. I had never heard of welfare until I was in college and never knew it was an option for some people. When I did hear about it, I thought it was only for old people who couldn’t work.

I guess now is the time to apologize for this rant and didn’t realize where this was going until I started to write. I know I’m probably preaching to the choir but I’m about to say things that I’ve thought about for a long time and felt like it was probably politically incorrect to voice these opinions.
I recently read Drop Outs - A Sign of the Entitlement Times? from Open Education by Thomas,

“Here in America, a good number of folks tend to think our young people carry with them such a strong sense of entitlement that the idea of working towards a goal is simply deemed as asking too much.

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- Source : http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com